Skated with energy and attack per their usual style. A lot of Tanith and Ben skating straight at the judges side by side with arms up-raised in fine Eastern European folk style. I'm really struck by how Ben seems to absorb the new coaching and has seemed to step up the subtlety but also the technical finesse of his skating- a lot of little interesting steps from him. Tanith didn't impress me as much she seemed to lag a bit behind him ever so slightly- looked a bit tight. Their twizzles looked a bit out of sync on the second one- I think.

I think they won the day because of all of the teams they had the best overall package of technical confidence and polish but the OD itself as an artistic vehicle wasn't anything to write home about. It gets the job done but nothing out of the ordinary.

After the scores came up, Tanith made a comment about not ever wanting to skate 2 programs in one day again and that her legs were shaking during the OD- which would explain why she seemed to lag behind Ben a bit. I'm sure they'll work on everything before their next outing and continue to have respectable showings in this OD.

Overall I thought this OD comp was nothing special. No team really grabbed me and made me not want to take my eyes off of them. B/A were definitely the best here but I don't like this OD much and my first reaction was "they are officially Russians", but that was just a knee-jerk reaction. A lot of the music was pretty awful, imo. Weaver/Poje looked nice in their costumes but they had a rough skate to a Flamenco. I think they've got the goods to beat C/P this season but they've got to skate better than this to do it. C/Z's OD didn't fit them, imo, and while it was skated pretty well, it was obvious that the judges said, "Welcome to Seniors but...here's a low score for you." They'll improve, I'm sure.

F/S and K/N were okay but again, nothing special. Khoklova does nothing but show her flexibility time and again. They have fast become a one-trick pony. Those costumes they wore were something else. It was a shock after seeing F/S who were wearing costumes for a funeral. B/A's costumes were nice but the red boots on Tanith didn't thrill me. I will have to watch this OD again to appreciate it more but on first look, I don't know...it's just, meh.

And I know it's mostly because they are my two favorite teams but D/W and V/M looked way better than pretty much anybody here. I think it's going to be an interesting year in ice dance.

K/N - the costumes are really disturbing and I'm really not a fan of their skating, its all about Jana crazy flexibility, the program have potential and please change the costumes

B/A - Tanith semes really really tired ate the and of the program. I like the program, i guess they recived level 3 on the footworks, I sure they will work on it and imporve, very nice lifts. The music is a litle bit strange but is a nice program, fun and well... folk dance.

K/N - the costumes are really disturbing and I'm really not a fan of their skating, its all about Jana crazy flexibility, the program have potential and please change the costumes

B/A - Tanith semes really really tired ate the and of the program. I like the program, i guess they recived level 3 on the footworks, I sure they will work on it and imporve, very nice lifts. The music is a litle bit strange but is a nice program, fun and well... folk dance.

I am romanian born hungarian. The red boots are specific especially in hungarian folk dances. Not in romanian, but in the far east Transilvania where is a large hungarian community, in the middle of Romania the red boots are used in the traditional folk dances. This piece of music they used is listed on their ISU page as Moldavian, which is the eastern region of Romania. If you are familiar with G. Enescu's music (the most famous romanian composer), there is a section in the Romanian Rapsody nr 1, called "the skylark", you can hear in the last section of their dance.

I was thrilled tro see Ben wearing costume we had to wear when I danced in my kindergarten

I guess I can "forgive" Natalia for last years program (as if she cares ) and IMO the two year plan seems to be working.

I love B&A's new OD red boot covers and all. Very good technical content, the lifts are wonderful, some really nice highlight moves (the bird miming at the beginning was a nice touch). I love the dancing in place that Tanith and Ben do immediately before the midline step sequence. One sign of a good dance (for those who like the dance in question) is when it seems as if that dance is over in a flash which for me B&A's was. When Tanith and Ben hugged for their closing pose I thought "it's over already?" Tanith and Ben. This dance goes onto my favorite list along with D&W, P&B and N&B.

Re D&W vs B&A. The only thing you can do is compare the actual required elements since the dances of both teams are of course different. When it comes down to liking or not liking the dances it's possible that some people are more open to some rhythms than others.

In skating for every performance there has to be a downside. I hope to get a look at W&P's OD again once they perform it better. I love this team and was gutted for them when Kaitlyn fell. I think their Flamenco might end up on my favorite list once W&P can regroup and become more comfortable with the dance. I'm assuming that was the problem; well that and early season nerves.

F&S are looking good. I need to watch them again in order to figure out whether it might be possible for Federica and Massimo to beat K&N at some point this season.

I won't even talk about K&N. I don't even remember if I liked the choreography as I was distracted by those costumes. Or perhaps I shouldn't be hard on them; are those costumes authentic in any way? K&N have always gone the more dramatic route with their costumes but they outdid themselves this season and not in a good way.

I missed C&Z (well the entire first flight) whom I wanted to see. I'll have to check youtube later to see if their OD was posted.

Good luck to B&A in the FD. I wish them another solid performance. Also I hope W&P can move past the OD performance and skate well in the FD.